Friday, October 21, 2011

How the Michael Bourn deal went down

There is simply too much to pull from, so stop what you're doing and read this oral history of the Bourn trade.

Interestingly enough, however:At 7 p.m., Wade’s phone rings as he’s about to head home. It’s the general manager of another team inquiring for the first time about Bourn.

Astros: Wade – Our briefcases are packed up now, all we have to do is just say novenas for the rest of the night hoping Michael doesn’t get hurt. And I’m just about 10 paces from the elevator to push the button to go down to the parking garage. I said, “Out of respect, I don’t want to waste your time. I think we’re pretty far down the road on something.” And the response is, “Even if I’m willing to give you better players?” And I said, “Just take me at my word. We’ve known each other for a long time, stay out of it.”

5 comments:

Blazemule
said...

Why would you tell someone to stay out of it, they want to negotiate! Why not pause the deal and ask for better players, you didn't get much for Bourn. Am I missing something here? It just seems like he didn't even counter offer for the players Wren offered. Wade - "We want 2-3 prime players", Wren - "Here are 3-4 ok players and be happy we gave you those", Wade - "ok, dur dur dur dur".

The deal was complete, papers signed and submitted to MLB. At that point it was too late put it on hold.

What he should have done was wait till closer to the deadline and waited for someone to overpay (like the guy who called at the last minute).

It almost seems like he felt he owned it to Wren to send them Bourn since they missed out on Pence or he didn't accurately gauge the market for Bourn. Either way it doesnt reflect well on his ability to trade players.

I agree with you Andrew, at that point he probably could not have pulled back the offer. But what I have a problem with is he did not let the offer breath or maybe talk to some other teams of interest. I think you are exactly right, he felt he owned Wren since he missed out on Pence. Why did he not counter the offer Wren made, is what bugs me, how about put Minor in there in place of Abreu and Shafer or Obenafjfjalr? I mean we already have a player in Kuechel that is a soft tossing lefty that can be a 4 or 5, we need potential 1 and 2's. Hell even a deal for Minor or Delgado plus Clemons would have been a good deal to me.

Dude, very irresponsible of you to post this article in this matter. In the future should you choose to post a similar article detailing how Ed Wade got pwned in trade negotiations, I would strongly advise the following warning to be prominently listed in the caption and at the top of the article:

"WARNING: Before reading this article you are advised to lock away all firearms or other instruments capable of causing significant damage to persons or property. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THIS ARTICLE BE READ IF YOU ARE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF ADULT BEVERAGES."

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